I’d like to informally share some scattered experiences and thoughts I’ve had while working as a solo, independent game developer. This might become a regular series.
I’m coming up on the end of my first week of dedicated game development. For the past few years, I haven’t had a job, and have shifted between different kinds of work and learning skills required for me to be a solo game developer. One period that lasted a season or two was focused on academic writing… One season where I focused on learning the basics of programming, and another, or two, of learning how to draw. Throughout all of these different phases, I have done varying amounts of developing my game idea, making concept art, etc. So, I feel very fortunate that I am now able to approach game development “head on”, feeling like I have a somewhat robust mythology and set of characters developed, and having a very basic competence in most areas of game development. I don’t know anything about marketing, but… who needs marketing?
The amount of planning involved often feels more daunting and more demanding than anything. Making so many creative and directorial decisions tends to completely exhaust my brain’s creative capacity. But that’s good; it’s the reason why I enjoy being an independent developer. I tend to get antsy when I’m doing work that isn’t as multi-dimensional. I need a good amount of creative and intellectual stimulation to feel satisfied.
I’m interested in directing games in the future, and working with a team. I imagine that would be easier. But it is thrilling to make everything myself.
Some random development things I’m currently deliberating:
The idea of creating lush, green environments is very captivating to me.
The stupidity of the orientalism in many “sand levels” in video games is really egregious, and the sheer number of these orientalist regions in video games is EGREGIOUS. I’ve thought about this for so long. It feels like there is a lot of room for deconstruction there. Spreading critique of orientalism would be a good thing.
Do I put time into creating interesting game mechanics involving more traditional platforming gameplay, like jumping on enemies? When I was in my early 20’s, I was always saying that I was frustrated with how games are so consistently based in relations of enmity. That doesn’t bother me as much anymore. But creatively pursuing that feeling does sound nice.
Ultimately, I’m less interested in platforming gameplay than I am in crafting narrative, mystery, existential, political, and cultural questions, and preserving and re-telling history, including silenced histories. But the truth is that when I open my game engine I really do enjoy just jumping around! Which is why I love video games. For all the time I spend talking about wanting to make video games smart and critical, what pulls me back to video games is that element of play, which can be sort of thoughtless sometimes. So, the fascinating question for me has always been how to combine those two together. I want to create fun gameplay, but I don’t need my gameplay to be like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth or the recent Onimusha game. I think I’d like the story to get more attention.
Two references here that I’ll be looking to for inspiration. The first is Slay the Princess, which plays like a visual novel but has some great narrative and dialog that subverts the “save the princess” trope. The only gameplay is selecting dialog responses. But the sheer creativity in the narrative’s turns, the psychological to-and-fro between the player and the princess (and the narrator and other voices), makes me confident games can hold that intellectual depth without having deep gameplay.
Second is the mechanic of synergy skills/abilities, which are found at least in Chrono Trigger, Tales of Arise, and FF7 Rebirth and Revelation. With the dynamic camera angles and well-paced cuts, synergy abilities in the FF7 Remake series enable the player to experience relationships between characters during gameplay. The fighting gameplay feels a little bit more like storytelling. I aspire to crafting that kind of experience for the player/viewer.
I want the gameplay to be experienced as its own story about the player’s life. Undertale did this so well. I don’t want the player to think of playing the game as an isolated experience that doesn’t connect with the rest of their life. I think Souls games also do this quite well. Dying over and over again can be so frustrating, and it is tempting to shut the game off and walk away. Continuing to try, while the player works through those feelings, and eventually winning, can give the player a sense of confidence.
As far as game mechanics go, I’m interested in having a plant maintenance system be one part of the gameplay, and then the other part will be platforming. Dialog might be central. I do want to develop relationships between characters. It’s hard to imagine pixel art characters philosophizing about masculinity and feminism, but I know it can be done!
As a story-crafter, it can be very fun to be surprised by your characters. I am looking forward to seeing interactions and relationship development between Ourobouros and Seth, particularly. Ourobouros is the god of cycles, and Seth is a mystic who is sort of like a priest of Ourobouros. And I think they’re going to have sex!
Some of the main things I accomplished this week:
— implementing idle and walk animations for Ouroboros
— diegetic sound fx
— mossy/grassy floor tiles
— some animated vines
— a lot of tinkering with synthesizers
Thanks for reading!
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